A Different Kind of Family
by The Songbirds Are Singing
Summary: What if Quinn's baby really had been Finn's? Way back in season 1 onwards, rated for possible languages, don't think there are any spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi, there. I'm Ali, and this is my very first story ever, so please be nice. It's just my idea of what might have happened if the baby had in fact been Finn's waaaay back in season 1 (do you remember those** **simple times of less drama and even less sustained story lines?), and if people like it, I might continue it. If not, then I'll just be happy that people have taken the time to read it. Enjoy, and please review! xx :)**

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><p>I sat on my window sill, watching the rain trickle down it in little rivers. It had been raining ever since- since <em>she<em> had arrived. I couldn't sleep, even though I'd been wanting to for hours. I was utterly exhausted, but sleep just wouldn't come. I'd been having 'insomnia' for the past eight months (which was just a fancy way of saying I couldn't sleep). It started when she told me. About the baby. The very word made my heart beat faster, even though I should be way past that by now. This dad stuff was supposed to be natural, right? Like 'maternal instinct', but for dudes. Faternal instinct? I looked over at the crib in the corner if the room, where the baby- my_ daughter_- was sleeping. It scared me how much I loved her, even though she'd only been in the world for a few days. Especially as I had next to no idea what to do with her.

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><p>"<em>I have to tell you something."<em>

"_Shoot."_

"_I'm leaving."_

"_What?"_

"_Leaving. Mom and I are moving to California, we want to start afresh. No Dad, no stupid small town idiots."_

_Pause._

"_And no baby, huh?"_

"_Yeah. No baby."_

"_Oh."_

"_Yeah."_

_Pause._

"_Do you think you can do it?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_You know how Rachel's mom missed raising a kid, and how Phoebe in _Friends_ didn't want to give the triplets up, and I'm just worried about you regretting it. She's your daughter; won't you be sad about not seeing her grow up?"_

_Pause._

"_Yes. But I can't face getting the looks I've been getting for the past nine months, for the rest of my life. People judge me, and I can't handle that. I don't understand how some people have managed to deal with it their entire lives. People just looking at you, assuming things about you. It-it crushed me. And moving to a different state, away from the people who know my whole story, means I can reinvent myself, and put all this behind me."_

"_So what are you going to do with her?"_

"_Nothing. I'm not going to do anything."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_She's yours."_

"_What?"_

"_I've signed away all my rights as her mother. She is yours and yours alone. You can keep her, or you can give her up for adoption, it's your choice. I'll send $100 a month for her if you keep her, and I'm paying for the hospital bills. But this is the last time you'll see me. I'm leaving tomorrow, and I'm not coming back."_

"_Oh."_

_Pause._

"_So what are you going to do with her?"_

"_I don't know. I-I want to keep her, but I don't know what Mom and Burt will say. It's their house too. And Kurt. I don't even know if he likes babies."_

"_He does."_

"_Well that's one problem solved. But I don't think I can look after a new baby, a whole person. I'm…me."_

"_You know, you're actually more intelligent than you give yourself credit for. You may not know classes, and books, but you know people. And I think you'll make a great father."_

_Pause._

"_Thank you. It means a lot that you trust me to raise our child on my own. But I still don't know."_

"_That's fine, for now, anyway. But I'll be gone by tomorrow, and I'll need to know whether to send you the $100 every month, so do you think you could have an answer by then?"_

"_I'll try."_

"_Thank you."_

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><p>The baby started crying again. I sighed, and moved as quietly as I could over to the crib. Mom had told me that singing to her would probably put her back to sleep again, so I cleared my throat, picked her up and began a lullaby I somehow remembered from when I was a kid.<p>

_You are my sunshine,_

_My only sunshine._

_You make me happy,_

_When skies are grey._

_You'll never know dear,_

_How much I love you._

_So please don't take_

_My sunshine away._

She stopped crying. There was a small smile on her face as she drifted off again, and I surprised myself by randomly thinking it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I knew I should put her down, I needed sleep, but I didn't want to stop looking at her. It relaxed me anyway.

"Does she have a name yet?" I looked up, to see my step-brother standing by the door, a smile on his face. Our parents had gotten married a few months ago, right after we moved in together. It'd been a really quiet ceremony, just us as joint best men, and a couple of other family members. The baby was staying in my room with me until we moved into the new house we were buying, which had an extra bedroom. We'd been going to buy it anyway, so that was just lucky. Well, not so much lucky, as a freakish coincidence. I wasn't convinced that anything about this situation was lucky.

"Uh, no, I haven't decided." I said, gently putting down the baby, and moving to stand by him at the door.

"Have you considered Lucy?" He suggested.

"Why Lucy?" I frowned, knowing I should know that from the look he was giving me.

"It's Quinn's middle name." He said with a typical eye-roll.

"Oh. Is that such a good idea?" It seemed pretty risky to me. Would she be able to figure out who her mom was?

"I don't see why not. We still don't have to tell her, and it's a nice name anyway, common enough for it to have been random."

"That's true. I used to have a fish called Lucy."

"Right." He didn't seem to know what to say to that. "Well then. Is that it, is Lucy her name?" We looked at each other, and I smiled.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think it is." I said and he smiled back.

"What about her middle name?"

"Carole." I said, without missing a beat.

"Good." He said. I pulled him into a one arm hug, and he returned it with a yawn. "My work is done, so I'm going to go to bed now."

"Alright. G'night."

"'Night Finn."


	2. Chapter 2

"Finn! Are you ready?" Mom called up the stairs the afternoon after I brought Lucy home, and I bolted upright, shaking my head to clear it of the blurry dreams involving crying babies and blonde figures that darted out of my line of vision every time I asked them for help. No prizes for guessing who that symbolised.

"Um, sorry." I yelled back down. "I fell asleep." I looked around my room, trying to locate my shoes. The door opened, and my mom walked in, scooping them up from behind a chair and handing them to me.

"That's ok, you didn't get much sleep last night." She said as I did them up. "But you need to get used to catching random naps, and acquire a taste for caffeine. Coffee is about to become your best friend."

"Right." I frowned slightly: why would coffee be my best friend? I could get just as much caffeine from a Red Bull. "Where are we going again?" I stretched as I stood up.

"Mothercare, I told you this morning." Mom said and I frowned.

"But I'm not a mother. Why would I go to 'Mothercare'?" I asked.

"It's just a baby store, Finn, we need stuff for Lucy. We're almost out of the formula and diapers the hospital gave us. Now, it's already four, we only have two hours until it closes." She sighed in exasperation at my stupidity, and I followed her from the room and down the stairs, yawning. Mom had taken Lucy off my hands for a while, while I had a shower, then after I'd sat down for one minute, I'd found myself us completely conking out. As I emerged from the staircase, skipping the last step because the carpet always tripped me up, I noticed Kurt was standing by the front door, cooing to a gurgling Lucy where she sat in her carrier.

"Hey, bro, why're you coming?" I asked and he gave me one of his many forms of look: I think he once called this one 'condescending'. No idea what that means.

"There is absolutely no way in hell I'm letting anyone but myself near anything that Lucy will be wearing for the next however-many-years-it-takes-for-her-to-start-rebelling-against-my-impecable-taste." He retorted, gently playing with his niece's tiny fist until she pulled it away and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Fine." I said, shrugging. It was a relief, really: I'd have no idea what to dress a five-day year old.

"You've got to stick to the budget, though, Kurt." Carole warned, opening the door. He rolled his eyes.

"I get it, I get it." He muttered.

"Can we take your car, please Kurt?" I asked, taking my daughter from him.

"Ok. But if she gets sick on the upholstery, I'm holding you personally responsible." He said and I grinned. His car was awesome.

"Kurt, which one do _you_ think?" Mom turned to my step-brother, where he was examining the thread-count on a pair of baby socks.

"The light blue one. The yellow on the other will make her look washed out." He said, moving onto vests.

"It's a buggy." I said, baffled.

"Which she will be in every day for the next three to four years." He countered, shaking his head and sighing at me. I sighed, and put the large box into the already over-crowded trolley.

"Mom, how are we going to afford all this?" I said, looking over everything. She bit her lip.

"Burt and I have always had a little set aside for emergencies, and we've taken out a second mortgage. We're not going to be able to have a new car I'm afraid, but otherwise it'll be fine. I promise." She rubbed my arm reassuringly and I smiled, but I could still see the strain in her eyes. She turned to push the trolley away, and I caught Kurt looking at me, a frown creasing his smooth skin. I carried my sleeping daughter over to stand next to him.

"What is it?" I asked, and he looked up.

"Nothing." He said, but I raised an eyebrow at him and he sighed. "It's just that I researched how much kids cost to bring up, and…it's a lot, Finn." He looked like he felt bad to have mentioned it, but continued anyway. "I think it would be a good idea for us to get jobs. It would help a ton, and anything we don't spend now can go to her collage fund."

"Wait-we?" I looked at him, unsure. He frowned.

"Well, yes. Unless you don't want me to help out-"

"No, I really do." I said hastily. "It's just…that's really nice of you, Kurt." He shook his head.

"Forget about it, I'd do it for anyone." He looked down, and I nodded.

"Uh-huh." I said knowingly, and he shoved me.

"Shut up."

"Face it: you care about me." I teased, knowing I was making him feel uncomfortable.

"I don't have a choice." He insisted, walking away from me. I hurried after him, bouncing Lucy on my hip as I did so.

"Sure."

"I'm serious: I'm doing it for Lucy, not you."

"I believe you."

"Shut up, Finn."

"Aw, love you two, Kurtie."

The next I was lying on the sofa watching a football game at low volume, as Lucy napped in her carrier a few feet away, when my mom walked in. She looked worried, along with a bit of apprehension (my grandma bought me word-a-day toilet paper for my seventeenth birthday, the cheap old bat): after living with her on my own for almost all my life, I had gotten to be an expert at reading her facial expressions.

"Finn." She said firmly, clasping her hands together.

"Yeah, Mom?" I looked up at her, turning the volume on the game right down. I had learnt to listen when she was speaking like that, otherwise she would go off on a rant about how I didn't listen to her, and I would never amount to anything in life if I didn't. "You know how on Monday spring break finishes and I have to go back to teaching kindergarten?" She was using the voice my math teacher used whenever he spoke to me, always thinking I didn't understand what he was teaching. I usually didn't, but I didn't like it that he assumed.

"Yeah." I replied, not sure where she was going with this.

"That means I can't look after Lucy while you're at school." She said slowly, as if she was worried I would get mad. Or not understand. It was only since getting Lucy that I was noticing how often that happened when people talked to me.

"I know." I said just as slowly.

"You do?" She said, surprised. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"You know, I'm a lot more aware of things now I have a _daughter_." I said, irritated that she couldn't see this. "I'm totally responsible. In fact, I got these" I picked up the sheets of paper on the table in front of me, "off the internet. They're day care centres in Lima, so she can go there while I'm at school. I'll pick her up on my way home, and take her there in the morning."

"Oh, right. Seems like you really thought this through, huh?" Mom looked really surprised, and I sighed before standing up and looking her straight in the eyes.

"Mom, listen to me. I've realised that I need to become a more responsible, otherwise I'm not going to be able to do this right. Like you did." I threw the compliment in there to make her quit bugging me, but I honestly did mean it. I really appreciated how hard she had worked to raise me now that it was my turn.

"Thank you, Finn." She said quietly, kissing my forehead. Then Lucy began to cry, so I moved over to her, picking her up and holding her close to me as I rocked from side to side. I began humming _'I'll Stand by You'_ , and smiled as she stopped crying almost immediately. Hopefully, she was going to grow up musical; maybe Mr Schue already had a new recruit for glee club.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Hi, readers. Not sure how many of you there are, and I've only got one review so far, so could you please take the time just to drop me a line (totally unintentional rhyme there), I'd really appreciate it. **

**Oh, and the reason I can update so quickly is because I actually already have most of this written, so I'm just going back and tweaking things then posting the chapters. Also, I have no life. So, yeah. **

**Loads of love to deli, who I said I'd shout out to in the last chapter, but ff is being really difficult, and it took me ages to realise how to post a new chapter. Love you honey! xx **

When you have a child, your whole world changes. The thought of Lucy before she had been born, had been one of horror: she was something that was going to come in and ruin my life, ruin any prospects I'd ever had. And maybe she would have for other people; for me, however, I knew I never would have left Ohio anyway, and I loved her more than I could comprehend. She was perfect, and had given me a light in my life, something I hadn't even realised I'd been searching for.

"What's your name?" A round woman asked me, as I stood in front of the desk in the lobby of the day care centre, Lucy sleeping peacefully in her pram behind me. Kurt was with her, singing to her quietly as he listened to his iPod. It was a habit we had both picked up in our quest to turn her into a musical baby. I wondered briefly if we were doing the same thing to Lucy as Rachel's dads had to her, but almost laughed at the thought. Kurt was her uncle, not one of her fathers (I mentally shuddered at the thought of dating my brother), and besides, Lucy was perfect; Rachel, while definitely being talented, was not. It was the first day back after the half term holidays, and I'd finally decided on a daycare centre for Lucy to stay at while I was at school. It was the only place in Lima which would take someone as young as her, and it was also the cheapest.

"Finn Hudson." I replied. "This is Lucy Hudson, my daughter." I gestured to her, still marvelling at how she could go from screaming at the top of her lungs, to falling asleep quietly. I already was used to it, though, just like I'd become used to the smell of used diapers and late nights. She was barely two weeks old, but I felt like she'd been a part of me forever. She just fitted right into my little life.

"And who's that?" She leaned round me, to look at Kurt, who glanced up and gave a little wave.

"Oh, that's Kurt Hummel my brother. We're just on our way to school." I explained, and her expression softened.

"I see." She had clearly seen my situation before, and deftly moved me and Kurt out of the way, scooping Lucy up without my daughter making any noise. She just kept sleeping peacefully.

"Wow, how did you do that?" I was impressed: every time I tried to move her when she was asleep, she had a screaming fit.

"Years of practise. Don't worry, it'll come to you too." She reassured, and took me over to fill in some paperwork. It took almost an hour, by which time we were definitely going to be late for school. Kurt had begun pacing, but didn't say anything, because he knew it wasn't really my fault. We literally ran to his car, and sped all the way there- for once, Kurt didn't care about crashing (which I always thought had been more in fear of hurting his car, than anything else). Fortunately, we weren't alone in our lateness, so we stopped running as we went past the reception entrance with the rest of the late-comers. Principle Figgins' secretary stopped us, frowning.

"Why are you two late?" She asked, and she had a point. Ever since I'd started coming to school with Kurt, I hadn't missed the beginning of first period once.

"I'm sorry, we had to drop Lucy off at day care." Kurt explained.

"Who is Lucy?" She asked him, but I answered.

"My daughter." I said clearly, and she smirked.

"Right, I heard that Fabray girl moved away. Stuck you with the kid, huh?" I felt a flare of anger rise up inside me.

"Quinn did not 'stick me' with Lucy. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I'm not going to let you speak about her like that." I said tersely, moving forwards, but Kurt pulled me back.

"Finn, we have to get to class. I'm sure she didn't mean it like that." He said quietly, and I frowned, but let him lead us away anyway. At our lockers (which were just across from each other), he approached me, looking a mix of worried, apologetic and serious.

"Finn, you have to know that people are going to be rude to you, they're going to judge you, and you have to learn not to let it get to you." He said.  
>"But they have no right. I'm not doing anything wrong, they don't even know me!" I protested, and he put a hand on his hip.<p>

"You think I don't know that?" We locked eyes, and I realised something.

"Is that what people always do to you? When they call you names, push you into lockers, they're judging you, right?" I said, and he nodded again.

"Yes, exactly." Kurt said. I stared at him.

"How do you stand it?" I whispered.  
>"I don't!" He laughed drily. "Finn, every time someone calls me one of those names, it kills me. Each dumpster toss, slushie facial, locker slam- they hurt more inside than out. More than anything, I wish I could just get out of this place, go somewhere else. But I can't. So I suck it up, and focus on the good in my life to get me through each day. Besides, it's been happening almost all my life, I'm used to it." Spontaneously, I pulled him into a tight hug, choking him slightly.<p>

"I'm so sorry I ever did any of that to you. That I ever let anyone do that on my watch." I said into his shoulder, and he pushed me away gently.

"It's ok, I forgave you a long time ago." He said with a wry smile.

"When?"

"When I realised that you were a good person, and our parents being together made both of them so happy. That's also the time I got over my stupid crush on you." I blanched, and he froze, going pink.

"I never mentioned that before, did I?" He murmured, and I shook my head awkwardly. "We're already late, we should go." He hurried off, not looking at me.

"We aren't done talking!" I called after him, walking in the opposite direction.

"Finn, bro!" Puck called over to me, as I walked to Glee Club. So far, I'd managed to avoid most of my friends- the real ones, who'd actually care about what'd happened- all day, because I just didn't want their sympathetic glances, their 'are you ok's and 'can we do anything's. I wasn't upset about Quinn leaving, I'd honestly never loved her. We'd only been together because I was the quarterback, and she was the head cheerleader; it made sense. If she'd stayed, I would have stayed with her for Lucy's sake, and hoped I'd fall head over heels one day. That just wasn't an issue anymore.

"Hi, Puck." I said overly brightly, turning to him. "What's up?"

"What the hell, dude?" He asked, angry. I wasn't sure why, I hadn't spoken to him in a week. Oh. "You said you'd come to Mike's party, and you didn't, you missed the New Directions Thursday Pizza Night" we had one every week, and I always went "and you haven't answered your phone once." He looked accusing, and I bit my lip.

"I-I've been busy." I mumbled, walking towards the choir room.

"That's bull." Puck scoffed.

"No, really, I have." I insisted, as we entered the choir room. We were slightly early, and the only other two people there were Kurt and Mercedes, who were- unusually- not talking to each other. In fact, Mercedes looked annoyed, and I realised that Kurt hadn't told her why he hadn't really been around during the holidays either. He was almost as invested in Lucy's well-being as I was, and the happy attitude he did it with made me think he really cared about her: I had a feeling I would never be on my own raising her, whether it was Kurt, or my parents, they would always have my back. Unused to having such deep thoughts when I wasn't half awake in the middle of the night, I shook myself, sitting down next to Puck. Kurt tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see him giving me another look; this one seemed to say 'well, are you going to tell them?' I sighed.

"Can I wait 'til everyone else is here too?" I murmured, and he sighed and nodded. I'd been hoping that would buy me some time to figure out what I was going to say, but the rest of the glee club chose that moment to walk through the door in one big, accusatory group.

"Finn!"

"Kurt!"

"Where were you guys?"

"Why didn't you come to pizza night?"

"Why weren't you at my party?"

Kurt and I were bombarded with questions by our friends, and even by Mr Schuster, who tended to make an appearance on Thursday nights- probably to check we weren't doing anything illegal. I looked at my brother, and he nodded encouragingly, so I stood up and approached our teacher.

"Uh, Mr Schue?" I said quietly, and he looked up from where he had been shuffling some sheet music.

"Yes, Finn?"

"Can I talk to everyone, please?" I asked, and he nodded, looking a little puzzled.

"Of course." He turned around. "Hey, everyone, settle down. Finn wants to say a few words." He said, sitting down. I took his place, breathing deeply to try and calm my nerves. What if they were angry? What if they abandoned me for their images? Having a kid at the age of seventeen wasn't exactly going to do much for my reputation.

"So, I guess you guys are wondering why Kurt and I kind of disappeared this half-term." I said, and there were a few nods.

"What were you doing, hooking up?" Puck scoffed, but I could tell he was only half-joking.

"Don't be stupid, Noah." Kurt said scathingly. "Go on, Finn." I looked at him gratefully and continued.

"Well, you know that now Quinn's had her baby, she left to live in California." Again, people nodded.

"I miss pregnant Quinn." Brittany said in her quiet voice. "She dressed really pretty, and she let me share her candy bars." Santana patted her best friend's arm, and linked their pinkies together.

"Right." I said, as unsure as usual as to what to say when Brittany said almost anything. "Anyway, she went with her mom, but…" I took a deep breath. "She didn't take the baby." Confused glances, and a reassuring one from Kurt. "In fact, she left her with me."

"Seriously?" Mercedes said, disbelieving.

"Wait, Finn." Mr Schuster looked concerned. "Are you trying to tell us you have a daughter to look after now?" I gulped.

"Yeah, yeah I do." There was a long pause, and I was starting to get worried that people thought the idea was crazy, or stupid, when Brittany said "what does she look like?" I perked up a little.

"She has a tiny bit of really blond hair right on top of her head, an adorable button nose, seriously pudgy cheeks, and these amazing blue eyes, that make you want to look at her all day." Puck was looking at me like I was crazy, but all the girls looked like they were going to cry. Even Santana.

"What's her name?" Rachel asked, for once not looking at me like she wanted to rip my life apart and replace everything precious to me with crazy cat calendars. The one week I'd taken a break from Quinn to date Rachel had been one of the scariest of my life.

"Lucy Carole Hudson." I said proudly. Santana looked up.

"Is that because Lucy is Quinn's middle name?" She said surreptitiously, and I nodded.

"It was Kurt's idea." I said, and a few people turned to look at him.

"Uh, where exactly does Kurt fit into all this?" Artie asked, and Kurt looked over at him.

"Our family is pretty close, and we've decided we're all going to help Finn raise her together. I've been almost as busy as Finn has." He said, pulling out an emery board and beginning to file his nails.

"Right, and we're both going to get jobs." I nodded.

"Where is she now, then?" Puck asked, looking disgruntled. I'd known he had feelings for Quinn, so he was probably going to miss her, but I was worried that would affect his relationship with Lucy. I was thinking of asking him to be a godfather: after all, we had been best friends since we were seven.

"Day care." I said, smiling at him. "I know she's technically a little young, but I really didn't have any other choice." There was another pause, then Mercedes looked up.

"Do we get to meet her?" She asked enthusiastically, and I looked at Kurt, who shrugged.

"Why not?" He said, so I nodded.

"Sure." I said, and there were several squeals from the girls. Mr Schuster stood up, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Finn, are you sure you can handle this?" He asked in the same tone my mother had used before she found out about my day care research. I sighed.

"Mr Schuster, I know you don't have kids, but you should know that being in charge of children makes you feel more responsible, like you can handle more. Faternal instinct, right?" He bit his lip.

"_Paternal_, but yes." He corrected. "All right, I believe you. But don't ever feel like you can't come to any of us for help, ok?" The rest of the glee club nodded, and I felt a swell of happiness at their support.

"Thanks, you guys." I said happily, sitting down next to Mike. A few people patted me on the back, and I felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Kurt and I sat in a truly awkward silence, as we drove out of the day care. His sound system was broken, so there was nothing to break the tense hush. I sighed, and he glared at me.

"I'm so mad at myself." He said bitterly.

"Don't be." I sighed, but that didn't mean I wasn't mad at him. "Why did you have to say anything?" I muttered, earning me a scowl.

"It's not my fault!" He responded. "I didn't _want_ to like you, and it's not even an issue anymore."

"I know it's not." I said hastily. "Just a little weird, is all." Kurt sighed and was quiet again. After a few minutes, he said "please can't we just put it behind us?" His was wearing a worried expression, and I understood completely. We got on really well, and he was definitely like a brother to me, so thinking of him ever thinking of me like…that, was creepy.

"Yes, I think that would be best. This…never happened, ok?" I said, and he nodded in agreement as we pulled into the day care car park. "Back in a sec." I said, jumping out. Kurt grunted in acknowledgement, beginning to examine the stereo. He was a genius with electronics, and mechanics, he spent a lot of time helping out in the garage. He was a hundred times better than I was, that was for certain, but I was learning fast. Something on my mind had been asking Burt for a job in the garage, but there weren't any spaces, and I should probably learn a little more about cars before I was let loose on one on my own.

It was a hot day, and I was hit by a blast of cold air from the air conditioning as I pushed open the day care door. I approached the front desk, seeing it was a different woman than before. This one was younger- at the very latest in her mid-twenties- and very pretty, with tanned skin and dark green eyes. She smiled at me as I walked up to her, noticing that her earrings matched the colour of her eyes. I felt my IQ drop considerably, as it always seemed to do when I was confronted with a particularly pretty girl.

"Uh, can I help you?" Asked the woman, and I tried to clear my head.

"Yes, I'm here to pick up my daughter." I said.

"What's her name?" The woman looked down at some papers.

"Lucy Hudson."

"And yours?" She asked.

"I'm Finn Hudson." I replied.

"Oh, are you the kid from McKinley?" She looked interested, and I frowned.

"How do you know that?" I asked suspiciously.

"Relax. My sister goes to your school, in fact she's in the New Directions with you." She explained, and I looked at her harder, trying to figure out who she looked like. "Do you know Brittany Pearce?" She said questioningly, and I narrowed my eyes.

"You look nothing like her." I said.

"Adopted sister." She elaborated and I nodded.

"I get it. It's really nice to meet you." I said, and she smiled at me.

"You too." There was a pause, and I was just about to ask about Lucy, the door opened and Kurt stalked in.

"Finn, we have to get home." He said. "Everyone's coming by to see Lucy in a couple of hours, and I want to change her outfit. Why haven't you got her yet?" He glared at me, then spotted Brittany's sister and rolled his eyes. "Ah, of course. A pretty girl comes along and all of a sudden, you forget all about you daughter." He crossed his arms and Brittany's sister raised an eyebrow.

"Let me guess." She observed him with an annoyed expression. "Kurt Hummel, diva, soprano and fashionista, with the fantastic voice and condescending attitude." Kurt gaped at her and she smirked, holding out a hand.

"Kaitlin Pearce, Brittany's sister. She lets slip more than she's aware. Also, Santana spends a lot of time at our house." They shook.

"It's nice to meet you." Kurt said, nodding.

"Now who's getting distracted by the pretty girl?" I muttered, and Kurt swatted at my arm.

"I'm not being distracted by her because she's pretty, we're introducing ourselves to each other." He rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, we should get Lucy." I pointed out and he nodded.

"Ok." Kurt said, and pulled out his iPod, leaning against the desk to wait for me. I followed Kaitlin through to the room where babies went, and my eyes were immediately drawn towards Lucy. She was lying on a sheepskin rug, chattering away nonsensically to herself, as she batted at a mobile hanging above her head. My face split into a wide grin and in two strides I had reached her, scooping her up into my arms. I held her head as she laughed; it was such a beautiful sound.

"How was she?" I asked Kaitlin, who was smiling indulgently at me.

"Perfect. She slept well, and barely cried all day." I grinned again, as the larger woman from the morning walked up.

"Ah, so you've come to take the little angel away from us." She said. "Are you considering this becoming a common occurrence?"

"You mean, am I going to bring her back again?" I clarified and she smiled, nodding. "Well then, probably. She looks so happy, and it's right on my way home." This had been a trial day, so it'd been free, but I wasn't actually sure how much it would cost. I asked.

"$10 a day." Kaitlin said, and I sighed in relief: that was the exact budget Mom had said I could spend on day care.

"Well, expect us back again tomorrow, then." I said as we left, Kurt following us.

"Finn! They're here!" Kurt yelled up the stairs. I had been feeding Lucy, and slowly stood up, being careful of her head. She was quiet, but not asleep; which was pretty much going to be a lost cause, what with the excitement I could already hear from downstairs. I made my way slowly down the stairs, dodging boxes and packaging (we were moving that weekend) and turned into the living room. There was a collective gasp from the whole glee club, and Kurt and our parents smiled. Rachel approached me, smiling tentatively.

"She's so beautiful." She said softly, holding out her hands questioningly. I nodded, and handed her over. Rachel gave a little "oh" gazing down at her. After a full minute, Mercedes came over, and Rachel wordlessly handed my daughter over. This started a sort of weird ceremony, where Lucy was passed around to everyone, and they all held her. After ten minutes, she reached Kurt, who took her with a smile and started rocking her gently to get her to sleep.

"Hey, Brittany." I said, interrupting the almost reverent silence that had fallen. Seriously, it was incredible the effect a new baby could have. "You never told us your sister works at the day care centre." She nodded.

"That's right." Brittany said quietly, a dreamy look on her face. "She loves to look after little kids, ever since our brother died. She used to babysit him the whole time." The silence that followed was unlike any she had created before. Santana gently took her hand, and said "the others don't know that, remember, Britt?" Brittany looked vaguely confused, then shrugged.

"Yeah, he died a few years ago. He ran away from my mom on his way back from kindergarten and got hit by a car. She was fine, but he died." She looked sad, then began fiddling with the hem of her skirt. I was speechless, and Kurt had stopped rocking Lucy, to stare at the cheerleader.

"I'm so sorry, Brittany." Rachel murmured, crossing the room to pit an arm around her. Brittany looked at her with a thoughtful expression.

"I never understand why people say that. It's not your fault, you weren't driving the car that hit him. Were you?" She suddenly looked anxious, and Rachel shook her head vigorously.

"No, no, no. It's just something people say when they feel sorry for you, when something bad happens." Rachel explained, and Brittany shrugged.

"You don't have to, though, it was two years ago. Of course I miss him, I miss him so much; I loved him. But I have to accept that he's dead, and move on with my life. Like with a breakup. Right, Santana?" She turned to her best friend, who looked uncomfortable.

"Well, maybe, I guess." Santana mumbled, and looked around for help, and Kurt looked up at Brittany, biting his lip.

"It's good to move on, Britt, but you shouldn't ever forget about him."

"It won't make it any better, or easier, in the long run." Mom added gently, and Brittany smiled slightly.

"I know you guys have lost people that were important to you, so you know what you're talking about. But I haven't forgotten him, and I never will. He's a part of me now, and I'll love him forever." This profound speech seemed to end her thoughts on the topic, and we all stared at her, a few people (not naming names, Puck) wiping away tears. "Can I hold Lucy again, please?" She asked after a pause, and Kurt took a deep breath. "No, Britt, I think it's her bedtime." He looked at me for conformation, and I nodded, making to stand up and take her from him, but Kurt shook his head.

"No, I'll do it." He said, and was out of the door before I could protest. I looked at Mom for help.

"Let him, he wants to." She said gently, and I nodded. People began to filter out, and I made sure to hug Brittany extra hard, and watched her walk off, pinkie linked with Santana's as if nothing was wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So, I just realised that I haven't put a disclaimer on this. So, just in case you were wondering, I don't own Glee. If I did, I would have much, MUCH more money, and many, many more followers on Twitter. **

**Thanks for the reviews and alerts; keep them coming, because they honestly make my day. Seriously, they were like little early birthday presents (my birthday was yesterday, in case you were wondering. Not that you would be. Anyway.) Xx **

* * *

><p>Kurt and I walked nervously into the only job centre in Lima, the weekend after New Directions met Lucy. We'd left Lucy at home with Mom, because we expected to be out all day, looking for jobs; anyway, she wasn't complaining, she loved spending time with her granddaughter (something I had promised not to call her in front of Mom, who said it made her fell old, which was stupid, because I had a daughter and I was only 17). After waiting for at least half an hour in the reception (me throwing pieces of screwed up paper into a trashcan, and Kurt reading <em>Vogue<em>, or something), a bored middle aged woman called us over to her cubicle, telling us to take a seat. We introduced ourselves, and told her all about my situation. She nodded, and began flicking through some papers. Eventually, she came across a sheet for a fast food restaurant, and held it up.

"Would this interest you?" She asked, pushing it towards us and we read it quickly.

"This is only for one person." I pointed out, and she frowned.

"Ok, well which one of you wants it?" She questioned, and I exchanged a look with Kurt.

"Me." I said, cutting him off before he could protest. "I know you're going to say you're better at cooking than me, but it can't be that hard, and I'm still not sure you need to get a job at all." He sighed at this: we'd had the argument many times already.

"We've been through this, yes I do." He said. "You can take it, but I'm getting something else, whether you like it or not." I bristled at his stubbornness.

"Fine." I said.

"Fine."

"Good."

"Good."

"Fine."

"Fi-" Kurt was cut off by the woman, who didn't look pleased.

"Excuse me." She said tersely. "But everyone else here is serious about getting a job, so if all you're going to do is bicker, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." I scowled at her, and Kurt cleared his throat.

"Ok, we're sorry." He said sheepishly. "So is there anything else?" She looked again, and came up with two more sheets.

"Well, there's one here for the sports shop in the mall-" She began.

"No." Kurt said, and I looked questioningly at him. "That's right where all the jocks hang out. I don't need them harassing me at work as well as all day at school." He explained quietly, and I nodded sombrely, patting his shoulder reassuringly. The woman looked slightly troubled at this, but let it go, passing the second piece of paper to him.

"This one I'm less sure you'll like." She said. Kurt read it for a long time, then glanced at me, looking dejected.

"It's perfect." He said, confusing both me and the job-woman.

"So why don't you take it?" I asked slowly, wondering if I was missing something. He handed me the sheet, and as soon as I saw the logo of the company in the corner, I understood. Collins' tyre shop. "Ah." I said, and Kurt nodded.

"So should I take it?" He asked, but the woman held up a hand.

"I'm sorry, but what exactly is the problem here?" She said, the stern 'stop wasting my time' look back on her face.

"This job is for Collins' tyre shop, my father's rival business. He owns Hummel's Tyres and Lube." Kurt said in a strained voice, and she nodded in understanding.

"I see." She said. "But I'm sorry, that's really all we have. You can either take that job now, or come back in a few weeks to see if anything else has opened up." Kurt sighed, and rubbed a hand over his face.

"Fine. I'll take it." He said eventually, and the woman nodded.

"Wonderful. Here is the necessary information, please call the numbers listed for details." She said, shaking hands with us. As we left, I felt a rush of accomplishment at having got something right, in beginning to provide for my daughter.

* * *

><p>That night at dinner, Kurt sat as stiffly as a board, his eyes darting between me, Lucy and Burt and twisting his hands together in his lap like he always did when he was preoccupied.<p>

"You alright, Kurt?" Burt asked, frowning from across the table to his son. "You haven't touched your dinner, and you look like someone's pouring paint over your Marx Jacobs sweater right in front of you and you can't do anything about it." Kurt fixed a completely fake grin onto his face, laughing nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Dad." He said quietly, and I could almost see beads of sweat forming on his brow. Man, was he a bad liar.

"You're a crap liar, Kurt." Burt said directly.

"Hey! Young ears are listening." I remarked sharply and Burt looked sheepish.

"Sorry. But it's true. What's going on, buddy?" He looked concerned now, and I sighed and turned to Kurt.

"You might as well tell him; it's going to be hard to hide, what with you having a uniform with the name of the shop on and all." I said reasonably, and he took a deep breath.

"You know Finn and I went to the job centre today, right?" He began, and Burt nodded.

"I was about to ask you about that, actually. How did it go?" He replied.

"Finn got a job at some fast food place at the mall," he began. "And I'm going to be a part-time mechanic. At Collins'." There was silence. Even Lucy was quiet, as Burt gaped at his son and Mom reached out a hand to take his in a sign of calming. No one spoke for a full minute, until Lucy became uneasy and started whimpering in her high chair. I turned away from the tense scene of Kurt and Burt glaring at each other over the potatoes sitting between them, to reassure my daughter.

"It's ok." I said with a smile, making train noises to get her to open her mouth. "Grampa and Uncle Kurt are just playing." My words seemed to stop them from giving each other death glares, and the both smiled for Lucy's sake.  
>"I'm not going to leak any of your trade secrets." Kurt said stiffly.<p>

"Are you sure there isn't anywhere else?" Burt seemed almost desperate, and I noticed Kurt hesitate, and shook my head a tiny amount to say that he shouldn't mention his reasoning for not taking the job at the sports shop. I knew his dad worried about him, and as long as he stayed away, there wasn't a problem, right?

"No, Dad. Nowhere else." Kurt said with a sigh. There was quiet.

"Well, I suppose you gotta do what you gotta do. For Lucy's sake." Burt sighed eventually, giving a rueful glance in Lucy and my direction. She blew a bubble with her spit in response. I smiled at him, and the tension relaxed, Kurt getting up to put his plate in the kitchen. I considered just how awesome my family were for a while, before turning back to Lucy and feeding her some more mashed up banana.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Altogether now…**_**Al's a crap updater and she really should do better"**_**…I'm so. Sorry. I got so caught up in school and then the holidays and my computer**** broke, but now I have a brand spanking new one**** and this is the first thing I'm writing on it. Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed and favourited, it really means the world to me. So I'm sorry, enjoy and please review. Xx **

I hadn't told anyone at work about Lucy. Not yet, anyway. I wasn't ashamed, goodness no, I never could be, but I was worried. Lima was a really small town, and if one person I couldn't trust found out then it would all be over. It was bad enough that the whole school knew, and the only reason I wasn't getting yelled at in the street for being an unfit father, was because everyone at McKinley was far too wrapped up in their own little bubbles to care enough to spread it around. But the people at work were gossips, so I kept myself to myself as much as possible, not wanting people to know too much. Not until I could talk to Lucy properly, and explain that while our family may be a little different to others, it wasn't bad. Looking back, that was stupid, of course she was going to be exposed to judgement and hate because of my age, but all I wanted to do was protect her. Was that so bad?

"Hi, Finn." I looked up from the buns I was buttering one morning at the McDonalds I worked up, to see the pretty girl whose name I forgot.

"Hey, er…" I trailed off, and frowned, desperately trying to remember her name.

"Katie." She supplies, luckily not looking hurt or mad.

"Right, Katie." I nodded, smiling weakly. She really was very pretty. "What's up?"

She smiled a bit, moving closer and running her finger along my arm. I raised my eyebrows, picturing the mailman as she said "well, I was just wondering what your deal is."

"M-my deal?" I said, gulping. She was so close I could smell her perfume.

"Yeah, I mean you're such a mystery." She shrugged, inching even closer. "I'd really like to…get to know you." She breathed the last words in my ear, her hand running up to play with my hair. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Uh-what-what exactly?" I practically squeaked, my voice cracking. I flushed bright red as she moved back enough to look at me properly with a smile.

"Well, for starters, why're you so secretive all the time?" It was a relatively innocent question (if you didn't count the way she had been acting a few seconds before), but it changed my mood completely. I went from being flustered and attracted to her, to closed off and short in the space of a second.

"That's not really any of your business, Katie." I said coolly, turning back to the bun. She looked offended.

"Well, sorry." She said, her voice icy. "Forgive me for wanting to know more than your name, and the fact that while being cute, you are seriously annoying when you refuse to talk to anyone." She was getting louder, more annoyed, and a few of the other workers were looking our way. "You don't have any right to be so closed off, you work here, and I think we would all like to know if you're some sort of a creep."

"Hey-" I tried to protest, but another person, a middle aged guy called Jonny, had wandered over.

"She's got a point, man." He said, as usual trying to talk like a kid when talking to me. "It's totally not cool when you close off like that."

"Look, I'm sorry you both feel that way, but-" I tried again, but Katie cut me off again.

"Oh, it's not just us two." She said, and then raised her voice. "Listen up people!" The rest of the people in the kitchen looked over. "Who here thinks that Finn needs to get that stick out of his ass and loosen up a little bit?" Quite a few people nodded and agreed, and I felt a bit annoyed.

"All right, all right." I said, almost having to shout to be heard over their muttering and the sound of burgers frying. "You might all think that, but don't you think it's a little unfair?" They didn't look like they agreed, so I tried again. "What goes on in my personal time is none of your business, and I think you should all respect that." A couple of people looked more convinced, and a little bit guilty, but Katie practically snorted.

"Whatever, Finn. I'm going to find out what you're about and you're not going to stop me, because I have the right to know!" She said, prodding me in the chest to accent her words. I reminded myself that she was a girl, so I couldn't hit her, and backed away.

"Katie, leave me alone!" I said loudly, moving towards the door.

"Why should I?" I could tell she was just trying to be difficult now, a mischievous look in her eye. "I want to get to know you, like I said before."

"Maybe I don't want to you." I replied, practically shouting at this point. "The lot of you are all such gossips; why can't you just let it go? I don't want you to know about my home life; it's my life, my business, and I don't want to talk about it!"

"Hudson?" I whipped around, all the anger going out of me and being replaced by fear when I saw my boss standing behind me, obviously having heard my outburst. "Something wrong?"

"No, sir." I said shortly. "Everything's fine."

"Actually, sir." Katie said, playing the 'scared of the big man' look as she got ready to complain about me. "Finn-" But she was interrupted by Jonny.

"Is right." He said quietly, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry I tried to pry into your personal life, I had no right, despite what Katie says." I nodded my thanks as Katie spluttered.  
>"What? Johnny, no!" She exclaimed. "You said last night you think he's a pain."<p>

"Yeah, maybe, but you're just being rude now. Leave him alone." Johnny said, looking a bit sheepishly at me. I didn't really care: I wasn't exactly his biggest fan either.

"I think everyone's had enough for today." Said my boss loudly, and the rest of the employees turned back to their jobs, clearly having lost interest. Katie looked like she was going to protest, but the boss- Matthew I remembered his name was from my interview- shooed her away and turned to me, Johnny walking out of the kitchen to work behind the counter.

"Hudson, would you like to come into my office?" He said, and I hesitated. He didn't _look_ angry, but then Lucy didn't always _look_ like she had a full nappy, and that was never a fun surprise to wake up to, even though she had her own room now we'd moved. Seriously, you could smell it everywhere in the house.

Slightly against my better judgement, I followed Matthew into his office. It wasn't much of a place; just a desk, a couple of chair and a filing cabinet, but there were lots of pictures doted around and a Community College Diploma framed on the wall. Before I could get a closer look at the pictures, he had sat down and gestured for me to do the same across the small desk from him.

"So, Finn, what was all that about?" He said, getting straight to the point. I shifted in my seat.

"Well, you see, sir-"

"Matthew is fine." He said with a slight smile. "I'm not _that_ old." He chuckled and I smiled back, glad he was being so friendly. And really, he wasn't old at all. Couldn't have been more than thirty.

"Uh, ok." I said. "Anyway, I didn't do anything wrong, they were just being nosy and I guess it just kind of bugged me."

"Why?" Matthew asked, leaning back in his chair and looking thoughtful.

"What do you mean?" I frowned. It was pretty clear to me: it was my business, not theirs.

"Why does it matter to you so much that they don't know anything about your personal life?" He asked. I thought back to my interview, when I had had Lucy in the buggy next to me and a worried frown on my forehead. Matthew had guessed what relation she was to me, and had promised not to tell anyone as soon as he had seen my terrified expression when he asked if she was indeed my daughter. I sighed.

"You know why, I told you in my interview." I said quietly. He nodded, then sat forwards again and turned something on his desk around so that I could see what it was. It was a macaroni-decorated frame with a picture of a little girl with bows in her hair and a yellow dress in it, who was being held by what was clearly a ten-years-younger version of Matthew. In fact, he was wearing a McKinley football kit and had his arm around a girl of a similar age.

"I understand more than you think." He said, giving me a second. And boy did I need one: here was a man who was saying that he had been through the same thing as I had, and had made it through actually ok. He pointed to another picture; this one was much more recent, and showed a girl blowing out the candles of a cake, a paper had fixed onto her head with a piece of elastic. I counted the number of candles: ten. In the background, there was a large group of people who were clearly her family.

"Her birthday?" I said, not really needing an answer. He nodded, looking proud.

"Yeah. Ten years old." He sighed, looking almost happy but it being held back by a trace of sadness. "It flies by, let me tell you."

"So…" I didn't want to say it out loud, in case it was too good to be true. "You…"

"I had a daughter when I was in high school, yes." He said, watching me carefully. "Just like you." And just like that, something changed. That thing inside me that had been hurting, that feeling that I was utterly, completely alone in the world, had gone. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the love and support of my family, especially Kurt, because I didn't think I'd ever be able to thank them enough, but up until now, I'd never met someone who was in my situation, or had been, anyway. Now, though, there was a man sitting in front of me who had successfully brought his daughter up through high school and college and had a diploma and a job. And he didn't look miserable; in fact, it was clear how much he loved his daughter. One of my greatest fears was that I'd end up resenting Lucy for being born at such a horrible time, but now I was thinking _if Matthew can do it, so can I_. I didn't say anything, but I think he understood because he reached over to clap me on the shoulder and suggested I take the rest of the day off.

When I got home, I raced over to Lucy where she was sitting on the carpet, gazing at the TV in amazement. She squeaked when I picked her up and held her tight to me, allowed one tear to fall onto her precious little head. "We're going to be ok, Lucy. I promise I'll make sure we're ok."

**A/N 2: Thank you for reading, and please, **_**please**_** review! Xx **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So I'm using the opportunity of being off school with a 24 hour stomach bug to update! Thank you so much to ****coolhan08**** for reviewing all of the chapters so far: she's awesome, go check her out! As always, I don't own Glee, and please review!**

I walked into work the next day with a clear head. Kurt had walked in on me cuddling Lucy and looking like I was "contemplating" something, and I asked him what he meant. He said "what're you thinking about" instead, and I told him about my plan. I wasn't sure whether he thought it was a good idea or not, but he seemed supportive and I was going to do it anyway, whatever he thought. He agreed to my plan, and called Mercedes to cancel some plans

"You look like a man on a mission." Johnny said, slightly amused as I put my jacket in my locker and shut it determinedly.

"I am." I said firmly.

"Well, what's your mission?" He asked. Ever since Katie had gone all crazy on me, he had been being nicer to me. Don't know why, but I wasn't complaining, he had some seriously great tips for the new football season.

I didn't really answer his question, but I said "do you think I could talk to everyone together?" He frowned, but didn't ask why, something I was glad for.

"You could try at the staff meeting this afternoon, if Matthew doesn't mind." He suggested.

"Sounds great, I'll ask him. Thanks Johnny." I said the last bit over my shoulder as I left. I went through the incredibly boring motions of the day, wishing I had someone to talk to (as it was a Wednesday, I was the only person not working in the kitchen), when Matthew popped his head out of his office.

"Hey, Finn. Johnny said you wanted to ask me something?" He asked. He was holding a phone and I could hear a classical piece of music; the sort they played when you were on hold. I nodded and wiped my hands on a tea towel to get rid of the ketchup that had gotten on them. I asked him if I could do what I had planned, and he agreed, as long as I didn't punch anyone who said anything bad. I agreed not to, and resolved to hold out until I could finally get this all resolved.

"What happened to you?" Burt looked up from his newspaper as Kurt and I slouched through the door, Lucy asleep in her stroller and Kurt holding his wrist to his chest. Kurt muttered darkly, but Burt didn't hear him. "What's wrong with you?"

"Er…" I wasn't quite sure how to put it. Kurt sighed dramatically and flopped down on the table burying his face in his hands. "Well…the good news is, everyone at work knows about Lucy."

Burt frowned. "Did you tell them, or did they find out through someone from school?"

"No, we told them." Kurt said, laying his head down on his arm and inspecting his wrist, which I could already see was a little bit swollen. "It didn't really go to plan."

FLASHBACKFLASHBACKFLASHBACK

"_Now Finn has something he'd like to share with you all." Matthew stepped aside from the front of the group he had just been talking to about the correct way to clean the coffee maker, and Finn got up from his seat in the front row. Katie huffed in annoyance, wanting the meeting to end so that she could go and file her nails in peace. _

"_Um, hi everyone." Finn said, giving an awkward wave. The rest of the workers fixed him with a glare that clearly said _'get this over with fast'. _"So, a lot of you have been wondering why I'm so closed off about my personal life" he shot a glance at Katie, who didn't look in the slightest bit abashed "and I'm sick of not talking to anyone because I have a secret, so I've decided to share it with you." Finn looked at Matthew for reassurance, and when he nodded, Finn called "Kurt?" _

"_Yeah?" Came the reply from the restaurant. _

"_Bring Lucy in, please." Finn walked over and opened the door for Kurt, who strode in with an air of defiance; as if he was challenging Finn's colleagues to say something about the baby on his hip. Finn's face involuntarily lit up at the sight of Lucy, and he hurried over to take her from his brother, cuddling her tightly to his chest. After a second, he shifted her onto his hip and faced the group. "You're probably all going to hate me for making such a big deal out of this, but I've realised that it's not going to do Lucy any good to hide our situation from people, just to stop them from judging us." He took a deep breath. "Lucy's my daughter. I'm a junior in high school and I have a kid." There was silence for a minute, and then Katie spoke. _

"_I should have known." She said scornfully. "You're just some jerk who knocked up his girlfriend." _

"_Hey!" Kurt said sharply before Finn could say anything. "Leave him alone, you don't know anything about what he's going through." _

"_Who asked your opinion, you little queer?" She said, taking in Kurt's general appearance with a sneer. Kurt didn't move for a second, then he walked over to where she was sitting and leant over so they were face to face. _

"_Now you listen to me." He said, and Finn noticed the quiet, calm tone of voice he used when he was trying to control his temper. "You have no right, absolutely _no right_ to talk about me and my brother like that. You don't know anything about us, and we don't want your stupid, annoying, _ignorant _attitude anywhere near us or the baby. Get it?" Katie looked frankly quite scared and gave a slow nod. Kurt grimaced and stepped back to stand next to Finn and run a hand through Lucy's sparse hair. _

"_Anyone else got a problem?" Finn asked, glaring at Katie. There was quiet for a moment, then someone at the back stood up. Finn had barely ever spoken to him, he only worked a few shifts a week and only one of the coincided with Finn's. "Yeah?" Finn said, scowling. _

"_I got a problem." The guy said. He was short and stocky, his bald head practically shining in the artificial light coming from overhead. Finn rubbed Lucy's back as she gabbled something, Kurt fishing a toy out of her buggy for her to fiddle with. _

"_What is it?" Finn asked suspiciously. The man moved his head from side to side as if preparing for a fight and moved round the benches the employees were all sitting on to level with Finn- as much as possible, anyway, given their height difference- before sneering unattractively. _

"_You can't raise a kid." He said sharply, continuing before either Finn or Kurt had the opportunity to say anything. "You're just a kid yourself. What kind of role model are you going to be? Probably going to take her out to parties with you, get her high for a laugh!" _

"_Shut your mouth!" Finn cried indignantly. "I would never do something like that, she's a baby! I know how to look after her just as much as any adult does." _

"_Sure you do." The guy said patronisingly, then turned to Kurt. "And what she _really_ doesn't need is someone like you, someone who is _sick in the head_, running around trying to turn her abnormal." There was silence for a second, then Kurt calmly moved forwards and punched the guy straight in the face. _

"_Kurt!" Finn gasped, while Lucy laughed loudly. Kurt plucked the baby from his arms, placed her in the buggy and marched out. "Can I…?" Finn looked helplessly at Matthew, who rolled his eyes and gestured for Finn to go after his brother. _

"You…you punched him, Kurt?" Burt gaped at him, and I have to admit, I was pretty impressed. I think Burt was too, especially when Kurt mumbled "no one pushes the Hummels around" but he pretended not to be, and went all stern instead.

"That's not acceptable, Kurt." He said, lifting Kurt's head off his arms and looking serious. "You can't just go around punching people, you've never done anything like this before."

"Actually, that's not true." Kurt replied. "I shoved Maisy Cooper in second grade, because she stole my Ken doll." Burt rolled his eyes, and I chucked at the thought of Kurt in second grade. I bet he was adorable. Lucy began to whimper, and before Burt could reply, she began full out screaming.

"Oh, I think it's time for someone's nap." I said, putting on that voice that everyone hated (except the girls, who thought it was cute) where I went all high-pitched and mushy. Kurt rolled his eyes and I escaped from the kitchen, thankful to be able to get away from the tension I knew was about to erupt between the two of them.

That evening, I was gently rocking Lucy's cradle (a really pretty wooden thing we found in a charity store) and singing her to sleep with one of the Beatles songs Kurt liked to listen to, when the man himself- no, not Paul McCartney- came in and sat on the bed beside me.

"You ok?" I asked him, noticing that his hand was wrapped in one of the bandages Mom bought when I sprained my ankle playing baseball. He nodded and sighed.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly.

"What for?" I asked, surprised. He hadn't done anything wrong as far as I could tell.

"I punched a guy right in front of Lucy." He said, like it was obvious. "That's like…the worst example you can set, like, ever." I knew that Kurt felt bad, because he wasn't talking all properly like he usually did. I shook my head and put and arm around him.

"Are you kidding?" I said, managing to keep my voice down for Lucy's sake, because I'd just got her down, but feeling like laughing because it was so ridiculous. "You did the exact opposite."

"How?" He asked, resting his head on my shoulder.

"You showed Lucy that she has to stand up for herself and the people she loves." I said. "I can't think of a much better example from an uncle." He lifted his head to smile at me.

"Thanks, Finn." He said. "Despite you occasional ability to appear about ten years younger than you actually are, you are actually quite wise."

"Thanks." I replied. We sat in silence for a minute, both of us watching Lucy fidget in her sleep. I'd never seen someone who could move so much and still be such a deep sleeper.

"You know that about four months ago, you would have jumped about a mile away from me if I tried to do this, right?" Kurt suddenly said, and I frowned.

"I know." I said quietly, biting my lip. "You know I'm so, _so_ sorry about that, right?"

He nodded. "And I'm sorry for being an utter creeper."

"At least you stopped once we moved in together." I said reasonably.

"Yeah. You didn't, though." He smirked, and I shoved him slightly.

"How many times do you want me to apologise for all that?" I asked sheepishly. He pretended to think about it for a moment.

"Until I decide you can stop paying for all my coffees." He said cheerfully, and then leapt up and reached the door in one stride. "'Night, Finn."

"'Night, bro."

**A/N: In the space between writing the top author's note and this one, I told my mother that I like to do this. She did not respond negatively, which was a plus, but other than that, I don't really know what she felt about it. Anyway, you probably don't care… xx **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** **Hi! I'm sorry it's been a while, but I have seriously problems with long-lasting writer's block, and…yeah, I don't have any other excuses. Sorry. I'm writing this while eating a ham and tomato toastie and watching Torchwood, so expect inspiration! **

**Warnings for a couple of homophobic slurs, which I **_**hated**_** writing, but I needed them for the story. **

**I don't own Glee, and please review! Or, you know, PM me. Even if you just want a chat, I don't have much going on, so I'd be happy to talk about whatever. Xx **

"Something's wrong with Lucy." I was up and out of my seat a second after Kurt saying that, searching his face for signs of worry.

"What, what is it?" I asked, trying not to shake him by the shoulders to get him to spill. He took a step back, his face still not looking upset.

"I didn't mean it like that, I promise." He said soothingly. "I only meant she needs some new clothes." I gaped at him.

"You can't _do_ that, Kurt! I was completely freaking out there!" I protested. Lucy was upstairs having a nap, and I hadn't heard anything on the baby monitor, but that didn't mean I wasn't suddenly worried shitless about her.

"I'm sorry." He answered, and did look a bit guilty, so I didn't press him.

"What's wrong, then?" I asked, sitting back down. He sighed dramatically, and I realised that this was a Kurt-problem, not a normal problem. A Kurt-problem usually involved fashion. And sure enough-

"It's her clothes." He said, flopping down on the sofa next to me. I rolled my eyes.

"What about them?" I asked, not really paying attention and looking back at the sports pages I was reading.

"They don't _fit_ her, Finn." He said, sounding exasperated (thank you word-of-the-day toilet paper). I looked at him, and thought back to that morning, when I had been getting her dressed. It had been pretty difficult to get her legs into her onsie that morning.

"Oh." I said, frowning. "Ok, well what do we do about it?" He just looked at me, and then I dawned on me. "We have to go shopping, don't we?" I gulped, and he nodded.

"Yep!" He said happily, and I groaned. Normally I wouldn't have a problem, but shopping with Kurt was much more of a big deal. He had plans, and helpers, and _strategies_. It was like going into battle with the Gap.

When I said Kurt had 'helpers', I meant it. Two days later, the entire of New Directions met up at the mall, me and Kurt with Lucy. As we pulled up in the car park, I asked him a question.

"Why did you invite everyone here?" I asked as we got out of the car and I went around to unbuckle Lucy from her car seat. He rolled his eyes, again, as if he'd said it before. Which he probably had, but he talked a lot, and sometimes it was difficult to remember everything.

"Because we want some of them to be involved with her life for quite a while, right?" He said and I nodded. We'd even thought about making some of them godparents. "Well, then they should be involved in some of the stuff we do with her, even the little things." That made sense, I thought, then smiled as he added "plus, I need the girls' advice on what to get her. No niece of mine is ever going to be badly dressed."

We met up with the others in the food court, and decided to have lunch before we did anything else. At first when I'd had Lucy with me whenever we hung out, I'd been worried that my friends would get sick of her, but she had all of us wrapped around her adorable little fingers in no time. And not just me, Kurt and the girls: Puck had formed some sort of bond with her. She loved him, and whenever she was around, she didn't want to sit with anyone else.

"So, where are we going to go first?" I heard Kurt ask, and looked over to my right where he was sitting, notepad and pen in hand.

"The Gap has a great baby range." Tina said, and Kurt glared at her.

"The day I dress my niece in clothes from the _Gap_, will be the day when Puck turns up to school in a dress." He said, and I laughed, before frowning.

"But Kurt, the Gap is cheap; we can't buy her Mick Jacobs stuff. I don't even know where you get it all." I said reasonably. Kurt sighed.

"I suppose not. And it's _Mark_ Jacobs, Finn." Kurt said. I noticed that he hadn't answered the question of where he had got his expensive clothes, and I thought that maybe it was one of those questions that you didn't want to know the answer to. Like 'why do you smell weird?' or 'what's menopause?' I definitely regretted asking _that_.

As I dug through the bag with all of Lucy's things in it to look for her bottle, I saw three men walking towards us. They looked like they were in about their thirties, and I wouldn't have noticed them except that they were all looking at us. Actually, they were all looking at Kurt, who had taken Lucy from Puck so that he could put her bib on before she had her bottle. I nudged him.

"Hey, do you know those guys?" I asked and he glanced over. His face lost the happy smile he usually had when he was around Lucy, and he looked worried instead.

"Uh, yeah." He said quietly. "They work at Collins's." I frowned, but before I could ask him what was wrong, the guys had reached our table and were looking scornfully down at Lucy and Kurt.

"Well, well, well." Said the one in the middle, who was taller and musclier than the others. "Look who we have here." Kurt closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, before handing me Lucy and standing up to face them.

"Can I help you guys?" He said in the tone I knew he always used when he was talking to his bullies at school. I hated how familiar it was.

"We were just wondering if your friends here" the big one said "knew that they were talking to a fairy. They might want to leave you alone to be disgusting, so they don't catch the gay." I jumped up out of my seat so fast that my chair skidded back and hit the table behind us. A few others did the same.

"Excuse me?" Mercedes gasped.

"You can't talk to him like that." Santana moved to stand next to Kurt and doing her 'I'm from Lima Heights, fear me' voice. I took a step forwards too.

"You need to leave." I said quietly, right up in the ringleader's face. "Otherwise this could get very ugly." They just laughed. I supposed that with my baby, baby sling and sick-up stained t-shirt, it would be difficult to take me seriously. I handed Lucy to Mercedes and moved towards them, but Kurt grabbed my shoulder and stood in front of me.

"Can you guys just leave us alone, please?" He said to the men, but they just laughed.

"I think they'll be the ones that want to be left alone, now they know your dirty little secret." The one in the middle said, and the men backing him up laughed like a pair of jocks at school.

"For you information, we already know Kurt is gay." Santana said angrily, stepping up beside Kurt and resting a hand on his shoulder. "And we seriously don't care. Now you had better go away and take your ignorant opinions with you, afore I ends you." She had gone full out Lima Heights by then, and they looked slightly scared (which did nothing for my ego).

"Alright." The man held up his hands and laughed a bit. He sounded nervous. "We'll leave you. Be careful, though. All that faggy influence could make that baby even uglier than it already is." Everyone gasped, and Santana spluttered, for once lost for words. But I saw red, and pushed everyone out of the way, launching myself at the man who just insulted my brother and my baby in one sentence, making me more angry than I had been in I don't know how long.

"You _don't_ talk about my family like that." I yelled, tackling him to the ground and beginning to punch him, pinning one of his arms to the ground. The other one waved above him, trying to fend me off, but my anger was pumping me full of adrenaline and I barely even noticed. Several of the girls screamed, and I heard Kurt telling me to stop, it wasn't worth it. But I didn't care, he had to pay for what he'd just said. I hit the jerk over and over again, before I felt myself being lifted off him by a security guard. As much as I'd wanted to hurt him properly, the guy really was huge, so I didn't think he'd have more than a black eye and some bruised ribs. The guy ran away before anything could be said, and I was dragged away by the security guards who had run over when they heard shouting. Lucy began to cry behind me, but I didn't say anything, didn't look at my friends as I was taken off, even though I was dying to turn around and hold her. I knew Kurt would handle it. It embarrassed me at how easily I'd flown off the handle: I was a father, I should have more self-control.

After I'd been in the cell (which looked exactly like they did on TV) for about ten minutes, next to a boy of about the same age as me who didn't say anything and looked high, Kurt came in. He was pushing Lucy in her buggy, and she'd fallen asleep clutching a light pink bunny rabbit toy that Rachel had surprised us with when we got there. I got up gratefully as he spoke to the security guard who was on duty; meaning he watched a small TV on the wall with his feet up on the desk and eating pizza.

"I'm here for Finn Hudson, I'm his brother." He said and the man sighed, getting up and opening the door to let me out after Kurt had handed him a wad of money he'd had to drive home to get.

"Thank you." Kurt said and the man grunted, going back to his TV and pizza. Kurt led me out of the mall jail, not saying a word and I noticed that our friends had left the table we were at before. Once we were outside, he sat down on a bench, gently lifting up Lucy (who had begun to sniffle) and giving her to me along with her bottle.

"Hey, baby girl." I said quietly, rocking her from side to side and tipping her bottle up so she could drink. She calmed down and sucked happily, her eyes looking up at me with a look that made me think she knew I had been in trouble. Kurt turned to me with a serious face.

"Finn, we need to talk about this." He said seriously, but I just shrugged.

"There's nothing to talk about." I replied. "He insulted my family, I reacted. Simple." Kurt frowned.

"You can't just launch yourself at everyone who insults me or Lucy. You're a slightly chubby-"

"Hey!" I protested.

"It's just the truth." He shrugged. "Anyway, you're a slightly chubby seventeen year old boy, with a very obviously gay brother and a baby. You're going to get insulted, you're going to get people judging you, and you need to accept that and learn not to react." I gaped at him.

"It's not that easy." I said in an attempt to defend myself. "I can't just sit back and let those things be said, I have to do something. Otherwise they'll just do it again."

"The only way to get them to stop is to ignore them and pretend that it doesn't get to you." Kurt reasoned, fiddling with Lucy's bag, which was hanging off the side of the buggy.

"And how's that worked for you so far?" I asked harshly. He looked away, biting his lip, and I immediately felt guilty.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I promise I'll try, ok?" He shrugged me off, and stood up, pushing Lucy's buggy to the car. Once we were about to set off for home, I remembered something.

"Wait, you said those thugs were from Collins's?" I asked him as I started the engine. He nodded slightly, twiddling the tuning dials to find a good radio station. "They don't act like that when you're at work, do they?" He stiffened at my question, and paused before nodding again. "That's awful!" I exclaimed, before lowering my voice so I didn't wake Lucy up again. "I'm pretty sure we could sue, or something."

"I doubt it; they haven't physically hurt me. It's just not a big deal; you need to let it go, please." He muttered.

"No!" I was shocked. How could he be acting so calmly?

"Kurt, I don't understand why you're being this way, why do you want to stay at a place where people insult you?" I pushed for an answer.

"Because we need the money!" He exclaimed. "Lucy is more important than me, and I'll be damned if she's going to want for anything in her life, just because I can't take an insult!" I gazed at him, before a car behind us hooted and I set off again. I drove for almost a full minute without saying anything, until there was a turning which I took and pulled over. I turned off the engine and turned to face him.

"Kurt, you cannot go on working there." I said firmly. "I don't care how much we need the money for Lucy; as long as she's got a roof over her head and people who love her, she's fine. And we have all that without you being harassed unnecessarily at work. You are going to quit that job, and find somewhere else to work, because you are my brother and I love you too much to let you get hurt." Kurt stared at me for ages after I said that, then dropped his head and muttered "all right." I sighed in relief, then set off again.

When we got back to the house, Mom and Burt were waiting to yell at me. Apparently, Kurt had run in, yelled "Finn got arrested", grabbed his dad's wallet and left again. It took us almost twenty minutes to calm them down enough to explain what had happened, and then they spent another fifteen telling me off for losing my cool. They said "there is never an excuse for violence" and "you need to set a good example to Lucy". I sat and listened and nodded, and when they said that I was grounded for anything that didn't involve Lucy, I agreed and accepted my punishment. Soon they let me go upstairs to where Kurt had taken Lucy to get away from the yelling, and I walked in just as Kurt was hanging up the phone.

"Well, I did it." He said with a sigh.

"Did what?" I asked, sitting down on the floor where Lucy was gurgling and batting at a mobile that hung above the sheepskin blanket she was lying on.

"Quit my job." Kurt replied. I grinned at that, pulling him into a hug.

"That's great!" I said as he pulled away, fussing with his hair- which I totally didn't deliberately mess up.

"Is it, though?" He asked, looking sadly down at where Lucy was playing.

"Yes, it is." I said seriously, and when he shook his head, I grabbed his arm and made him look at me. "Please don't think for a moment that you are any less important than Lucy. I know you love her, and I am so, _so_ glad she has someone as brilliant as you to be there for her, but you have to remember that you don't have to sacrifice everything for her like I do. She doesn't need an uncle who doesn't stand up for himself; she needs and uncle who will show her that's ok to be whoever, and how to wear that with pride." He stared at me for ages- again- and then hugged me.

"You would make a wonderful motivational speaker, Finn." He said and I grinned.

"Pep talks kind of come hand in hand with being quarterback." I said.

"Are you going to remain the quarterback when we get back to school?" He asked, and I frowned.

"I guess it's going to be kind of hard to keep up with school, glee and football, now I've got Lucy." I said, absently reaching over and tickling Lucy's tummy, making her giggle adorably. "I hadn't really thought about it." Kurt shrugged.

"I'm sure you'll find a way of making it work." He said, and I smiled happy to see he was trying to boost my spirits.

That evening at dinner, before Kurt had the opportunity to mention that he had quit, Burt sat down and fixed the table with an angry expression.

"What's wrong?" Mom asked him. He muttered something. "What?" She asked, rubbing his shoulders.

"I had to fire one of the part-time mechanics, he was stealing from us." He said angrily, and we all gasped.

"Seriously?" I said, glancing over at Kurt. I think we were thinking the same thing: Kurt could take that job.

"Yeah. And I've got no idea where I'm going to find someone to replace him; he had a pretty skilled job." Burt sighed, taking grateful sip of the beer Mom gave him. "Shame you took that Collins' job, Kurt, or you could have been working for your old man!" He chuckled to himself, but I cleared my throat.

"Actually, Burt…" I said, then let Kurt continue. It was his job after all.

Once Kurt had told his father what had happened, he looked a bit nervous. "So, can I come and work for you?" There was quiet while Burt thought.

"Why didn't you tell us what was going on at work, Kurt?" He asked eventually, looking sad.

"Because I needed to get the money for Lucy." He said with a shrug.

"Kurt-" Burt started.

"It's ok, Dad, Finn already gave me that talk." He said. There was more quiet, until Burt sighed and nodded.

"Why not? You'll have to do the usual tests to make sure you're up to it, but we all know you are." Burt said, and I cheered while Kurt got up to hug him.

**A/N: Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review! Xx **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: To whoever that lovely anonymous reviewer was, thank you, that was so sweet, and I will bring Quinn back, but you will hate her. She goes rather canon, actually, even though I had the whole thing planned out before I saw any of season 3. **

**And Blaine's in this one. If you don't like him…well, tough, I do and I'm writing this. Oh, that was mean. Sorry. **

**What's that? I don't own Glee? NO WAY! xx **

* * *

><p>Lucy's first ever summer turned out to be my favourite of all time. Sure, there were many, <em>many<em> sleepless nights, and sometimes jerks from school would see me and Lucy around town and give us horrible looks, but it was ok. Kurt was always there to distract me, and Lucy would smile and everything would be ok. Some days we stayed at home and played in the garden, watched movies (Kurt thought that every child should be brought up with Disney in their life) and Lucy played with her many toys. Other days we went to the park, sometimes with me and Kurt's friends from the New Directions, sometimes with our parents. Kurt was usually with us, except for when he had his all-day shopping trips with Mercedes and Tina. I think Rachel went once, but it ended in tears for everyone. Even Lucy, but that was probably because she bumped her head.

About a week or so after Kurt quit his job, Puck was over at our house. He spent a lot of time playing with Lucy, and me, my parents and Kurt had already decided he was going to be her godfather.

"So you gonna keep her cooped up in here all day?" He asked me as I took a nap on the couch.

"Ugh?" I grunted. He reached over and shoved me a bit to get me to wake up, and I sat up, yawning. "What?"

"It's a great day, man! Lucy should be outside." Puck said, getting up off the floor and yanking the curtain away from the window, so that I had to shade my eyes from the sunlight. It made a rainbow on the wall across the room, and I grinned when I saw it, picking up Lucy and carrying her over to it.

"Look at the pretty lights, baby." I said, and she laughed, reaching out a hand to try and catch them as they danced around the wall. It was completely adorable. I watched her for a minute until she started to whine because she couldn't get them, then I said "do you want to go to the park?" I don't think she understood, but my voice sounded excited, so she grinned.

"Ok, let's go to the park, then." Puck said, sounding almost as excited as Lucy looked. Kurt came down the stairs just then, reading a Harry Potter book. I swear he read nothing else, like, ever. "Hey, Princess, you want to go to the park?"

"Don't call him that." I said sharply. Kurt smiled at me, then scowled when Puck grabbed him and ruffled his hair.

"Aw, he knows I don't mean anything by it." Puck said with a grin, and I saw Kurt smile to himself when he got out of Puck's grip.

"Whatever, yeah, I'll come." Kurt said as he fixed his hair.

"Great!" I said happily, taking Lucy upstairs to get her ready. Kurt hurried after me so he could choose her outfit. After our last trip to the mall was such a train wreck, he'd gone again with Mercedes and Tina and had found a load more clothes; I checked the bank account, and there was barely any money gone, so I don't know how he did it.

* * *

><p>Later that day, I had followed Puck's advice and we were in the park. It was me, Kurt, Puck, Rachel, Artie, Mercedes and Tina (and Lucy) and it was sunny, we had a picnic, and it wasn't even half way through the summer yet. We had a whole load of days following this to relax in the sun, and I was so, so loving it. Puck had his guitar, and was singing <em>Somewhere Over the Rainbow<em> while Lucy sat on Artie's lap next to him, because Rachel and Kurt kept saying that 'she had to know and love the classics from an early age'.

We had lunch, but it wasn't much because the fridge had been pretty much empty when we raided it, so we all found some money and clubbed together to get ice-cream. Lucy didn't have any because she was still only drinking milk, but she poked mine with her little finger, and laughed at how cold it was.

After we ate our ice-creams, Mike and Matt turned up with a football. Kurt told me it was ok, so I went with them, Puck and Tina (who loved football, and was actually quite good) to a space not very far away to play two-against-three, me and Mike against the other three. We were losing really, really badly (which was kind of embarrassing because I used to be the quarterback), and I missed the ball when Mike threw it to me from the other end of our make-shift pitch. I guess I was just out of practise. I ran after it, but I had been distracted when it had first missed me, by waving my arms at Mike annoyed-ly (that's so not a word…), so I didn't see where it went.

"This your ball?" I squinted against the sun in my eyes, and saw a short boy who looked about my age, holding up the ball. He was wearing a t-shirt that had the logo of that private school, Dalton Academy, on it, and his hair looked like it had been dunked in a bowl of water and frozen, it had so much gel in it.

"Yeah!" I called back gratefully, jogging over to get it from him. "Thanks, dude."

"No problem." He said with a smile and a shrug, then held his hand out. "I'm Blaine Anderson." I stopped myself from laughing at the weirdly formal greeting, and shook his hand.

"Finn, Finn Hudson." I said.

"So, Finn, Finn Hudson," he replied with a smile. "Think you've got space for a few more in your game? I'm here with some friends, but David forgot the ball."

"Sure, sounds good. Come on over." I said, even though I didn't really want them to join in. I didn't need anyone else seeing how bad I had gotten, and besides, they might all be jerks. I definitely didn't want any of _those_ going a mile near Lucy.

"Thanks." Blaine said, then shouted over to his buddies that he had found a game.

* * *

><p>"No, seriously, that catch was amazing. You're talented, Finn." Blaine clapped me on the back and I grinned, happy that I wasn't as bad as I felt I had gotten. Mike, Matt and Tina had to leave, so we stopped playing. Blaine and his friends had split themselves between our already-formed teams, and the other team ended up winning, but not by much.<p>

"Thanks, dude." I said. It hadn't been as bad as I had thought, sharing the game with those other guys: they were pretty good and all friendly. Then I made a split-second decision. "Hey, do you want to come and get some food? We have loads left."

"Who is 'we', exactly?" Blaine said, and Puck answered for me.

"My brother, Lucy, our friends." I said, deliberately not mentioning Lucy was my daughter, although I should have. He was a typical jock, he obviously wasn't going to be good about it. Maybe I just didn't want it to end, this quick time out I had from being a dad. Just playing ball, not having to worry about if she needed feeding, if her diaper needed changing, if I should be with her. Mind you, I'd still kept the area the others were in in my eyeline, just in case.

Before any of Blaine's friends (called Wes, Nick, Jeff, Trent and David, the one who had forgotten their ball) could ask who Lucy was, I had set off towards the blanket, half eager to see my daughter, and half desperate for some of my mom's cookies, which we had put in the bag of food.

"Well, well, well, look who came back." Kurt said, smiling at me and stopping his conversation with Mercedes. Lucy was lying on her back in front of them, snoozing. He saw the group trailing a way behind me, and said "are you going to introduce us?"

"Uh, yeah." I replied, stopping myself from scooping Lucy up into my arms and holding her close. Was it ridiculous that I missed her after an hour, when I had still been able to see her almost the entire time? Probably. "These guys joined in our game, so I said they could come and get some food."

"Right." Kurt said, frowning slightly. "Do we get to know their names, or are they all just going to stand there like a load of gormless idiots?"

"Kurt, stop being mean." Mercedes said, hitting his arm.

"Yeah, Kurt." Rachel chimed in as Tina flopped down beside her, grabbing her water bottle. She played better than at least two of Blaine's friends. "I bet they're all really nice. Right?"

Blaine's friends had come over and looked a bit weirded out, but some of them nodded.

"See?" Rachel said, then stood up, brushing off some grass from the dress I loved her in. She was really pretty, I was recently realising, even though that made me feel a bit weird. Rachel wasn't supposed to be pretty, she was supposed to be…Rachel. Loud but kind of nice when she tried at it.

"I am Rachel Berry, future Broadway star and leader singer of the glee club at McKinley High School, the New Directions." She said, smiling brightly.

"It's nice to meet you, Rachel. I'm Blaine Anderson." Blaine said, shaking hands with her. "This here is Wes-"

"Good day." Wes said formally, and I saw Kurt, Mercedes and Artie hide a bit of a laugh out of the corner of my eye. Blaine continued.

"Then David-"

"Howdy."

"Trent-"

"Hello."

"And Nick and Jeff. Or 'Niff', as we call them."

"Hiya, there." The dark haired one of 'Niff', who I thought was Nick, said.

"What's 'Niff'?" Tina asked from the floor, looking up at us all through one eye and hiding her face from the sun.

"It's their couple name." David said as they all sat down.

"Cute." Mercedes said with a smile. "How long have y'all been together?"

"Two years." Jeff said with a little bit of a blush. I saw Kurt's eyes get wide, and remembered him telling me that there probably weren't any openly gay kids in the whole of Ohio, let alone Lima. I was glad he was wrong: I didn't like him being all on his own.

"Aw." All the girls cooed at his happy grin.

"We have some couple names." I said, having put Lucy back down on her blanket. "Like, Tina and Mike are Tike. And our choir teacher and the guidance councillor are Wemma, because we all know Mr Schue should leave his wife and get together with her."

"Wow. Drama." Trent said, raising his eyebrows.

"That's not even the half of it." Kurt said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, yeah?" Blaine asked him, smiling at Mercedes when she passed him a cookie. Kurt got a funny expression on his face when he spoke to him, like he didn't want to talk to him, but did at the same time. Weird.

The others started telling Blaine and friends about all the other drama that went on in the New Directions, but I noticed that they didn't say anything about Lucy. She was asleep, but all of a sudden, she woke up and started crying. Mercedes made a face, and picked her up to hand her to me. I took her automatically, forgetting about the others as I checked her diaper and all the other things I did when I didn't know why she was crying.

"You need something to eat, huh, baby?" I asked. "Kurt, we packed some bottles, right?"

"Sure did." He said, grabbing one from the baby bag and kneeling to pass it up to me.

"Thanks, dude." I said, and put the bottle to Lucy's mouth. She sucked on it eagerly, stopping crying immediately. I looked up and realised that all the new guys were looking at me. But they didn't look mean, just curious, which was a nice change.

"Who's that little one?" Blaine asked, a smile on his face. I looked at Kurt who gave me an encouraging smile, so I answered truthfully.

"This is my daughter, Lucy Carole Hudson." I said clearly, watching carefully for their reactions. Most of them looked surprised, but not really hostile.

"She's precious." Trent said with a smile. "She reminds me of my little sister."

"Sweet." I said, but Puck interrupted me before I could say anything.

"None of you got a problem, right?" He said in the voice he used when he was challenging someone. Then I saw Wes and David behind the other four, looking a bit strange. They didn't look angry, just confused, maybe. They both hesitated.

"It's just…quite an unusual predicament you've got yourself into there." Wes said nervously, shifting on his feet. "I just wondered how you managed it."

"Do we need to give you a biology lesson?" Kurt snapped, standing up next to me and folding his arms. Puck snorted, half angrily, and half because he always did when Kurt gave one of his awesome comebacks.

"No, thank you very much." David said coolly. "We're simply saying that you should have been more responsible. Then you wouldn't have such a inconvenience in your life, messing everything up for you."

"Excuse me?" I gaped at him. "Lucy is nothing short of the best thing that has ever happened to me, and if you can't see that, then I don't want you anywhere near my family." I felt the tidal wave of anger I had felt in the mall start to come back, and I think Rachel noticed, because she walked over and laid a hand on my arm, gently rubbing it backwards and forwards to keep me calm. Just having her next to me made me feel better, for some reason.

"I'm surprised at you two." Blaine said, frowning. He looked almost shocked as he looked up at his friends. "Why would you make such snap judgements about someone, especially when they've been given such a blessing in their life? I expected better of you."

"Whatever." David muttered, and turned away. He walked off towards his car (an awesome BMW that I would have totally asked him about if I hadn't been so upset that he wasn't the nice guy I thought he was) and Wes followed him.

Everyone was quiet for a moment until Blaine spoke up.

"I can't apologise enough for the way they just spoke to you, especially David. I'm shocked at their behaviour." He said, and he looked like he felt so bad that I couldn't hold it against him.

"It's ok, man. You didn't do anything wrong." I said with a shrug, then noticed that Puck was glaring at the other three boys, who all looked a bit scared (which was a bit funny, because Jeff was taller than Puck). "Hey, Puck." I called over to him, and he looked at me. "Lay off, they're not going to say anything. Right, guys?"

They three of them nodded, so Puck moved backwards a bit. Rachel took Lucy from me, and I looked down at her.

"Thanks." I said, and I didn't have to say what for. She knew.

Later that day, I was watching a baby show with Lucy (even though she was way too young to understand what was going on), and Kurt came in. He was smiling widely, which was nice because it didn't happen nearly often enough. He looked pretty sad sometimes, except for when he was with Lucy, so like I said, it was nice.

"What's got you so happy?" I asked as he sat down next to me and tugged Lucy onto his lap. She gazed up at him and blew a spit bubble. He smiled to himself.

"Oh, just made a new friend." He said. "Someone I can really connect with, you know?" I thought of Rachel, and I knew.

"Yeah, man. I really do."

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><p><strong>AN: Hope you enjoyed, and please review! xx **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I'm so super sorry I haven't updated in so long: I've just had so many things going on, with my exams, shit going down with some people that are close to me, other school stuff (if you're English and have ever heard of the Duke of Edinborough award, it has scarred me for life). Hope you enjoy this chapter; it was originally going to be one long one, but I haven't updated in so long that I thought it would be better just to get this out, then I'll work on the rest of it. Also, it's a little bit of a filler, but enjoy anyway, and please review! xx**

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><p>"Mom, how is it possible that you have <em>this<em> many photos? Did you do nothing but take them when I was a kid?" I gaped at the boxes and boxes of photos that Mom had brought down from the attic, still not unpacked from when we moved in. She laughed.

"I was a new mother, I was excited. I didn't want to miss a thing. And they're good for a bit of nostalgia." She said, whatever that meant. "You're the same, with that baby book." I rolled my eyes, slightly irritated that she had a point.

Kurt had come up with an idea a few days after Lucy had come home with us: to record her entire life. That sounds crazy, but all it meant was writing in a diary whenever I got the chance (which really wasn't often, let me tell you), and letting people snap pictures of everything Lucy did. Kind of annoying sometimes, sure, but I know that in a few years, I'll be able to look back and smile at them. This time is kind of crazy, so I won't forget anything, at least.

I smiled as I looked through the box, remembering the odd moment: one year sitting on Santa's knee, another one of me in an over-sized baseball shirt, watching a game with my mom's brother. It made me happy to think that I'm going to be able to make all these memories again with Lucy, that she'll have happy memories to look back on when she's a teenager (and hopefully not with a kid at the age of seventeen). As I was smiling happily, sifting through the boxes, Kurt entered behind me and looked over my shoulder.

"Ha! Nice look, Finny." He snorted at a picture of me in the bath with a beard and hat of bubbles. I stuck my tongue out at him. "Real mature, Finny."

"Don't call me that!" I grumbled, swatting my hand at him vaguely as I bent down to give Lucy back the toy that had rolled away; even though she was too cute when she made grabby hands. Kurt's phone beeped and he whipped it out, his face breaking into a smile when he read the text. "Oh, I wonder who that could be?" I said sarcastically. Kurt went bright red, knowing I knew it was Blaine.

"Shut up!" He said, but not looking really angry because he was smiling too much. It was nice, he didn't smile enough anymore.

"You love him!" I said in a sing-song voice, hugely enjoying teasing him. Lucy found it funny too, and she clapped her hands and gurgled adorably. It didn't seem possible, but he went even redder, rolling his eyes at me. He does that so much they couldn't probably get stuck one day.

"I don't 'love' him." He said, using air quotes (which I had never quiet understood, but he used them whenever he was being sarcastic, or telling me off for doing something stupid). "Whether I like him or not is another matter." He added quietly, but I heard him.

"Ha!" I exclaimed triumphantly. "I knew it!" He just rolled his eyes again. Lucy began to cry, so I immediately went straight through the motions of checking everything and anything that could be wrong with her: winding her, seeing if she wanted her bottle, checking she hadn't hurt herself or lost one of her toys. Eventually I saw that her stuffed doggy on wheels had rolled out of her reach, so returned it to her and she calmed down, making me relieved that nothing worse had been wrong.

"See, even Lucy agrees." I said, tickling her under the chin and making her laugh, beautifully as always.

"So, have you found the right one yet?" Kurt asked, probably deliberately changing the subject.

"Nah, they're all of me when I was older than she is now." I said, referring to the plan to get a picture of me of when I was Lucy's age, to put on the invitations for her christening. Well, when I say 'the' plan, I mean Kurt's plan: I didn't see why we couldn't just use e-mail. Apparently that wouldn't be as original, and- to quote Kurt- 'this Christening is going to be the best one since Jesus'. He was ambitious, and besides, he wouldn't let me have a chocolate fountain for the reception, so surely it couldn't be that great.

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><p>"No! I clearly told you yesterday that we want light <em>blue<em> ribbons, not light _green_! Whoever heard of green ribbons at a Christening?" I paused as I passed Kurt's room the next day, having just put Lucy down for her nap. I opened the door to tell him to keep it down, or he'd wake her up, but stepped back when he threw his phone down on the desk with a groan of frustration.

"Everything ok?" I asked carefully, not wanting him to yell at me.

"Yeah, Finn, everything's just _peachy_." He muttered, very sarcastically, scowling at me.

"I'm _sorry_." I said, annoyed at his rudeness. He sighed, flopping back in his chair and running a hand through his hair, like he always did when he was stressed.

"No, Finn, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap." He said eventually, smiling weakly at me. "I just _so_ want this to be perfect, and nothing is going according to plan." I was quiet for a moment, then said something that I had been thinking about for a while.

"Why _does_ it have to be perfect?" I asked, thinking about how much he had been stressing out about this, and how much time he was spending planning it. He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Because it's Lucy's _Christening_, Frankenteen." He said, giving me the look which made me think he thought I was an idiot.

"So?" I asked, still not seeing his point. "She's a baby, she won't even know what's going on, let alone remember it when she's older. Besides, you don't even believe in God, why should it matter to you?"

"It's not a question of whether I believe in God or not: it's a question of a) giving Lucy the option to, if that's what she wants, and b) creating a day that will be memorable for her in the future, one that she can see pictures of and think about how lucky she is to have such a loving family. Besides, a whole load of your relatives haven't even met her yet." He had a point there: I'd been so constantly busy since I brought her home that I'd barely had time to think about when she was going to meet the rest of her family. Especially seeing as she had so many people fussing over her here all the time.

"Ok, I get it." I conceded (word of the day), patting him on the shoulder as I got up to leave. "Just don't overwork yourself, bro, I'm sure it'll be a great day."

"Thanks, Finn." He muttered, but he sounded more relaxed than he had done before.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: This chapter and the next were originally going to be one chapter, but I thought that seeing as I've been updating so badly, I should just get this out there. As a result, it's a little short, but I hope you enjoy it, and please review. **

**The last time I checked, I didn't own Glee. I don't think that's changed. xx :)**

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><p>After my talk with Kurt, I left the room and shut the door (in case he started yelling and woke Lucy up). I had only got halfway down the hallway when his phone rang and he picked it up on the first ring, answering it with an excited "hi, Blaine."<p>

Now, I'm not exactly proud of what I did next. Mom raised me right, so I knew eavesdropping was wrong, but I was really curious. Ever since the day in the park, it had been 'Blaine this' and 'Blaine that' and 'Blaine's so _dreamy_' (which he'd said to Mercedes in a text I read over his shoulder, getting a pillow to the head for my trouble). So sue me if I scooted back to Kurt's door and leant against the wall to listen.

"_How's the Christening planning going?" _Ah, the beauty of loudspeaker. I could hear Kurt typing away as he answered.

"Remarkably, one of the most stressful things I've ever done." Kurt replied. "But it means so much to me to make it perfect." That made me smile: it meant a lot to me when he showed how much he cared about Lucy.

"_I really admire that about you, Kurt." _Blaine said. _"You always see things through to the end, and you're so passionate about everything you do." _I didn't see how he could know that, seeing as he'd only known Kurt a few weeks; surely Kurt and he couldn't have been spending that much time together. However, he did sound like he meant it, so I let it go.

"Why, thank you, Blaine." Kurt was doing a flirty, joking tone that he used with Blaine a lot. "You know, you always know just what to say to make me feel better."

"_Well, I try." _Blaine was using the same tone of voice that Kurt was. _"So did you hear about…?"_ As they started talking about the latest Lady Gaga scandal, I got bored, so I walked away as quietly as I could, happy to know that my brother was being well looked after through all his stress.

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><p>The morning of the big day arrived. Kurt had got me up super early- and I mean early, early: even Lucy wasn't awake, and she never woke up later than six. Apparently that's really good for a baby, but I still thought it should be illegal for anyone to be up before nine- so I could help start making all the food, because he said that it wouldn't be fresh enough if we prepared it the night before. While I was busy making tiny smoked salmon sandwiches (I wanted to make them way bigger and add mayonnaise, but Kurt wouldn't let me), the doorbell rang, making Lucy start crying loudly.<p>

"Ah, that'll be Rachel." Kurt said.

"Rachel? What's she doing here?" I asked, pausing halfway up the stairs.

"I recruited her to help me make all the food, because I knew you wouldn't be that much help." He said as he opened the door. "Hello there, Miss Berry." He said. He was in a weirdly good mood that morning considering how grumpy he'd been in the days before, but I wasn't going to say anything in case he stopped. As much as I wanted to see Rachel (which I really, really did), Lucy was still crying, so I did my duty and went upstairs to sort her out.

An hour later, and Lucy was up, bathed and happily eating some mashed up banana in her high chair. I was spooning it to her as I sang along to the radio, when I heard someone come in behind me.

"Hi, Finn." Said Rachel, sitting down in the chair on the other side of Lucy. "Mind if I have a go?"

"Feeding her?" I asked and she nodded. "Be my guest." I said, handing over the spoon and getting up to start tidying up the kitchen. Kurt had run to the store to get some more salad, or something (he was talking really fast when he said it, so I'm not exactly sure), so I figured he'd like it if he came back and could keep cooking in a bit tidier kitchen. Rachel took over feeding Lucy the mashed up bananas, and Lucy's face lit up like it always did whenever she saw one of her multiple Glee club aunts and uncles.

"So how come you agreed to come over so early to help out?" I asked.

"Well, I get up at five am every morning to ensure I make the most of the day, and manage to fit in everything I have to do in my busy schedule anyway, and I'd love to have a hand in making this day special for Lucy. And you, actually." She said, sounding much too happy for someone who got up at five o'clock every day.

"Thanks Rachel, that's really nice of you." I said. "But wait, you're Jewish, right?"

"Right."

"So why do you want to help out with a christening?" I asked, genuinely curious. There was a time when I would have said anything to prevent Rachel from talking, but now I really wanted to hear what she had to say. She was one hundred per cent growing on me. She smiled a little.

"Nobody's perfect." She said with a cute little laugh. Not that I thought she was cute, or anything.

"Wait, doesn't that guy in _Independence Day_ say that? Have you seen _Independence Day_?" I was totally surprised.

"Of course I have, Finn." She said, as if it was obvious. I was still a little startled, but I let it go, searching for something else to say; even though the silence that had fallen between us wasn't uncomfortable. I just didn't want to stop talking to her.

"You know, you look really pretty." I said, saying the first thing that popped into my head. She was already wearing what she was wearing to the Christening (which started at midday): a dark purple dress and gold ballet pumps. It looked really good on her.

"Thank you, Finn." She said, blushing prettily. "I'm sure when you actually get dressed, you'll look very nice, too."

"Right." I said, suddenly very aware that I was wearing boxers and an old t–shirt of my dad's that was two sizes too big. Rachel did a funny little smile, and went back to feeding Lucy, leaving me feeling a little sad that our conversation was over.


End file.
